Earlier this year, Google requested map data from the Korean government. In response, Korean tech companies Naver and Kakao have increased free limits to their respective maps APIs beyond what Google offers. The government is expected to respond next month but the competition has already started.

MapQuest is inviting developers to take its MapQuest Static Map v5 API for a spin while in beta testing. The refreshed API has a handful of new features that should appeal to developers who rely on MapQuest's mapping tools. The beta is being offered for free through the end of 2016.

TomTom has added another API to its mapping and navigation solutions portfolio: Traffic Stats API. Traffic Stats collects data from over 450 million connected devices in order to provide historical traffic data. The data collected includes speed, route, travel time, segment, and more.

As messaging apps scramble to out-feature the competition, Telegram has launched a gaming platform within its Bot API. Most messaging apps have now included bot capabilities within their apps, but Telegram has upped its game with the ability to build games within the messaging app.

Riot Games senior software engineer Leigh Estes has published a three part series regarding the company's ongoing digital transformation to a microservices-driven software infrastructure. The company's journey involves some of the most textbook business and technical justifications for doing APIs.

Google is opening up Maps to new ride-sharing partners, meaning the search giant just effectively created the first ride-hailing price comparison feature. The surprise here is that Uber, previously the only ride-sharing partner on Google Maps, allowed this.

Geocoding involves converting a description of a physical address into coordinates that represent that location on a map to perform spatial analysis. This tutorial on the Google Maps APIs blog describes the two approaches to geocoding with Google Maps APIs, and when to use them.

Fourteen APIs have been added to the ProgrammableWeb directory in categories such as Games, Location, and Security. One hightlight today is an API that provides player and game stats for the popular soccer battling car game, Rocket League. Here's a summary of the new additions.

Pokémon Go has become a runaway hit and many developers are showing their enthusiasm for the game by reverse engineering the private, internal Pokémon Go API and creating unofficial third-party apps. The current situation of the Pokémon Go API exemplifies mobile API security concerns.

As Pokemon Go continues is rise in popularity, many developers have reverse engineered the game to publish unauthorized APIs. Niantic has now issued a cease and desist letter to a popular Pokemon Go API developer in an attempt to quash the unauthorized practice. Will threatened legal action work?

With Pokémon GO seemingly taking over the world as players walk around in search of the virtual creatures, one developer used the Watson Visual Recognition API to analyse screen shots of the app to locate nearby Pokémon, winning Best Use of Watson challenge at the AT&T Shape Tech Expo Hackathon.

Google today said it is putting the Google Places API for iOS 2.0 and the Google Maps SDK for iOS 2.0 into separate CocoaPods. The idea here is to reduce the app size for developers who need Places data, but not Maps data. Google says the change heralds big savings in app binaries.

After continued developer requests, Google has added marker clustering to Google Maps SDK for iOS Utility Library. The feature allows users to populate maps with a large number of markers while keeping the map clean and readable. As zoom levels adjust, markers aggregate and slit out accordingly.

​Nintendo, once a name synonymous with video game innovation and dominance, is back in the spotlight thanks to Pokémon Go. Now, it has merged its developer programs into a single portal, suggesting that the company could be looking to include independent game developers in its comeback plans.

eeGeo has announced the beta release of the eeGeo 3D Maps JavaScript API, an API that developers can use to quickly add eeGeo 3D maps to browser-based applications. This is the latest API released by eeGeo, the company released the eeGeo Points of Interest API earlier this year.

Google implemented a number of changes to its Maps API Standard Plan. Apps created on or after June 22nd will be subject to a host of new rules surrounding access and limits. Active domains utilizing the APIs prior to June 22nd are grandfathered in to differing degrees depending on implementation.

Google Maps API is the most popular tool for building location-based services. Now, the Google Maps Operations team is leveraging their experience to collaborate with Udacity and create a free course that teaches students how to integrate maps and location features into websites.

The Google Maps API team maintains many Google Maps APIs and SDKs. Manually tracking updates across the various sets of Release Notes presents a challenge for developers. Google now offers auto-updates to Maps Release Notes via RSS feeds. RSS feeds for all Maps and Places APIs are available.

Windyty has released a public API that developers can use to add an interactive animated weather forecast map to applications and websites. The Windyty animated map displays information and forecasts for wind, clouds, waves, temperature, and more. The API requires the Leaflet JavaScript library.

When developing a location-based application, displaying the most relevant information is the key to success. Countrywide.co.uk managed to increase their conversions by up to 300 percent when delivering points of interest by travel time. In this article, we’ll explain how to search and display